Phila. refinery tax proposed

Amid talk of cable contracts and plastic-bag bans at City Council's meeting yesterday, Councilmen Frank DiCicco and Jim Kenney slipped in a whopper - a $20 million tax on oil refineries.

DiCicco and Kenney introduced a bill that would institute a 35-cent tax on every barrel of petroleum processed in the city, which they said would likely raise $20 million.

"Oil companies saw huge profits in 2008 and the City of Philadelphia continues to struggle to meet service demands," DiCicco said in a news release. "With these considerations on top of the industry's impact on our environment and the health of our constituents, I think it's appropriate that the oil industry contributes more."

DiCicco's legislative aide, Brian Abernathy, said the bill would restore and raise for inflation a tax instituted for one year in 1976 at five cents a barrel. Abernathy said the city may be precluded by state law from imposing such a tax, but "it's at least worth a conversation in tough times, and the oil industry is one of the few that is still making money."

Calls to Sunoco Inc., with corporate headquarters in Center City, were not immediately returned. Sunoco has refineries in Philadelphia; Marcus Hook; Westville; Toledo, Ohio; and Tulsa, Okla. The tax would affect only its Philadelphia operation.

Abernathy said the tax was not targeted at Sunoco or the industry as leverage for another bill introduced by DiCicco and Kenney yesterday - a ban on plastic bags and Styrofoam containers.

Kenney, in his news release, blamed the chemical and oil industries - which produce the material for the bags and containers - for derailing similar proposals by the councilmen in 2007.

"At the time, these industries made commitments to improve recycling and education efforts," Kenney said. "To my knowledge, they've not lived up to any of those commitments."

The bills would restrict plastic bags at large grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience-store chains or charge a 25-cents-per-bag fee. The bills have not been scheduled for a hearing.

Also in Council yesterday, members Blondell Reynolds Brown and Curtis Jones Jr. and Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco praised School Reform Commission Chairwoman Sandra Dungee Glenn and urged Mayor Nutter to reappoint her.

Dungee Glenn's term expired last month along with that of board member Martin Bednarek, but Mayor Nutter asked her to stay on until he makes a decision.

"Chairwoman Dungee Glenn and Martin Bednarek are currently serving. I've talked with both about their service, and when I have an announcement to make with regard to the SRC, of course all of you will be the first to know," Nutter told reporters after an unrelated news conference. "I appreciate and respect the Council members' comments, and I'm glad they expressed themselves."